ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi is set to meet US President Donald Trump next week on the sidelines of the United Nations meeting in New York, a Baghdad government spokesperson confirmed. This comes ahead of the critical September 30 deadline for the withdrawal of US-led Coalition forces from Iraq and for bringing Iraqi armed groups under state control, with the latter target widely expected to be unmet.
Zaidi will attend the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and “hold meetings with US President Donald Trump and other heads of state,” Iraqi government Spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi told the state-run al-Iraqiya News channel late Thursday.
“The prime minister's diplomatic engagements embody the strategic relations between Iraq and other nations,” Aboudi said, adding that Zaidi is also set to meet senior officials from the US Chamber of Commerce “as part of efforts to sustain economic and commercial relations between the two countries.”
The Iraqi premier’s visit to the US is scheduled to take place only days after he met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin the next day, where he presided over the signing of several agreements in the two capitals, including on defense and energy.
Next week's meeting will also be the second between Zaidi and Trump since the Iraqi premier's mid-May inauguration, after the two met in Washington in July for talks that focused on elevating Baghdad's relations with Washington - security ties above all - to the level of a partnership.
The July meeting also addressed the end of the mandate of the US-led Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) and Iraq's push to implement the Strategic Framework Agreement, a 2008 pact between the two countries establishing a long-term partnership spanning diplomacy, defense, economy, energy, among other dossiers.
Zaidi reiterated to Rudaw on Tuesday that Iraq's security forces "are capable of maintaining control over territory effectively," adding that Baghdad conveyed this "reality" to Trump in July, as well as to Merz and Macron this week.
"What we are working on now is protecting Iraqi airspace from the passage of any aircraft," he said, adding that Coalition member states "will not be far" should Iraq need their assistance.
Iraqi government Spokesperson Aboudi on Thursday reaffirmed that the September 30 deadline “represents an important sovereign milestone, marking the transition of relations with Washington.”
Moreover, in his inaugural address to parliament in mid-May, Zaidi pledged to pursue security reforms, including "confining weapons under state control." In June, he ordered the formation of a committee to oversee the disengagement of political parties and armed factions from the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
Established in 2014 following a decree by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest Shiite religious authority, the PMF began as an umbrella organization of roughly 70 predominantly Shiite armed groups with 250,000 members formed to counter ISIS insurgency.
Though state-funded, the PMF comprises factions aligned with the Iran-led 'Axis of Resistance,' including Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, Kata'ib Hezbollah, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, and Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada. While some groups have expressed willingness to comply with Zaidi's push, others have cited the continued presence of foreign forces - namely from the US-led Coalition - as justification for refusing to do so.
Last week, Iraq's ruling Shiite Coordination Framework, which backed Zaidi for the premiership, formed a committee of senior alliance figures to advance the premier's disarmament push.
Aqeel al-Rudaini, spokesperson for the Victory Alliance - led by former prime minister Haider al-Abadi (2014 - 2018) - and a senior member of the Coordination Framework, told Rudaw the committee is “handling direct negotiations” with the Tehran-aligned armed groups that have so far refused to disarm.
Although September 30 is also the deadline for armed factions to lay down their weapons, Izzat Shabandar, a veteran Shiite politician known for his proximity to the ruling parties' inner circles, earlier this month told Rudaw the date is not set in stone.
“The [Zaidi] government has managed to persuade certain influential American figures involved in Iraqi decision-making that September 30 is not a sacred deadline,” Shabandar said, adding that “there is no deadline” currently on the horizon for the disarmament push.
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